total_moviesfandomcom-20200215-history
After Earth
After Earth is a 2013 American science fiction action adventure film directed by M. Night Shyamalan, which he co-wrote with Gary Whitta, based on an original story idea by Will Smith. A military father and his teenage son crash land on Earth one thousand years after cataclysmic events forced humanity to abandon Earth for a new home planet. The son must save his dying father and himself by trekking alone across hostile terrain pursued by evolved predators and an alien beast to recover a rescue-beacon. It is the second film (the first being The Pursuit of Happyness) that stars real-life father and son Will and Jaden Smith; with Will Smith also producing via his company Overbrook Entertainment and the distribution by Columbia Pictures. The film was released in IMAX on May 31, 2013. It received generally negative reviews from critics, who cited it as lacking originality, while its visual effects, acting and themes received a mixed response. Plot In the future, an environmental cataclysm forces the human race to abandon Earth and settle on a new world, Nova Prime. One thousand years later, The United Ranger Corps, a peacekeeping military commanded by General Cypher Raige, comes into conflict with alien creatures who intend to conquer Nova Prime. Their primary weapons are the Ursas: large, blind predatory multi-limbed creatures that hunt by actually "smelling" fear (pheromones). The Rangers struggle against the Ursas until the impassive Cypher learns how to completely suppress his fear, in effect becoming invisible to the Ursa—a technique called "ghosting." After teaching this act to the other Rangers, he leads the Ranger Corps to eventual victory. Meanwhile, Cypher's son Kitai blames himself for the death of his older sister Senshi at the hands of an Ursa attack some years ago when he was a young child. The two have an estranged relationship with Cypher being away on missions. Kitai, younger and smaller than most cadets, trains to become a staunch and respected Ranger like his father. Though despite his physical capabilities, his application is rejected due to his emotional behavior and has to break the news to Cypher, who's seemingly disappointed in him. Kitai's mother Faia convinces her husband to connect more with their son and Cypher decides to take Kitai on his last voyage before retirement. During space flight, however, their ship is caught by an asteroid shower forcing them to transport through a wormhole to safety and crash-land on the now-quarantined Earth. Inside the torn fuselage of the ship, only Kitai (strapped to a walled row of seats) and Cypher (with both legs broken) have survived and recover the damaged main beacon for firing a distress signal. Cypher instructs Kitai to locate the tail section of the ship, which broke off on entry to the atmosphere. Inside is the backup beacon, which they can use to signal the Rangers for a rescue or if he fails, the pair will face a most certain death. Cypher gives Kitai his double bladed Cutlass, a wrist communicator and six capsules of a fluid that enhances the oxygen intake so he can breathe in Earth's low-oxygen atmosphere. Cypher warns him to avoid the fauna and flora which has grown more deadly since mankind's departure, and be careful of violent weather thermal shifts. Kitai leaves to find the tail section, with Cypher guiding him through the communicator and a number of camera drones. Cypher's leg is losing arterial blood and he attempts to make a temporary 'shunt' to avoid bleeding out. In the first few hours of his journey, Kitai is soon surrounded by giant baboons. His father tells him not to move. Against his father's orders and out of fear, Kitai hits the leader with a stone, causing the baboons to give chase. Kitai manages to escape the large mammals, swimming across a river to safety, but the youth is bitten by a poisonous leech while in the water. Kitai administers an antidote, but not before the toxins take effect and his nervous system shuts down. When Kitai awakens, he narrowly escapes a thermal shift. Upon asking him how many breathing capsules he has left, Kitai lies to Cypher, not informing him that two of the capsules were damaged in his escape. That night, Cypher tells his son the story of when he was first attacked by an Ursa. The creature had tried to drown them both as Cypher fought back. He iterates a realization—although danger itself is real, fear is a mere illusion created by the mind, and thus he learned to "ghost" himself from the Ursas. The following day, Kitai reaches a mountaintop, and Cypher once again asks him how many capsules he has left (Monitoring Kitai's condition from the ship 24/7, he notices the youth's heart-rate increase when asked about the capsules), therefore finding about out about the two damaged ones. Knowing that the only way to make it with two capsules would be to skydive, while taking a ground route requires more, Cypher orders Kitai to abort the mission. Believing his father still sees him as a failure, Kitai finally snaps and blames Senshi's death on Cypher's absence on the day of the attack. In a crying fit he leaps from the mountaintop to attempt the skydive, but is captured by a giant condor, and his communicator is damaged. Kitai wakes in a nest of the condor, possibly having been mistaken as one her own chicks, and soon finds himself in another situation: The nest is under attack by large saber-toothed cats. Kitai and the condor fend off the hunters, one moment he even outsmarts one into jumping onto a weak portion of the nest. Though after managing to climb down from the nest, despite the efforts of both him and the condor, the chicks have all been killed. Spending the night in a cavern with a small molten magma river for heat, Kitai plots his course and calculates how many more miles he has to travel in order to reach the tail-end of the ship, taking into consideration how many capsules he has left. He reaches a river and builds a raft to continue along it, the flow taking him along to his destination. Worn and exhausted from his encounters, Kitai falls asleep on the raft, and dreams of his sister, Senshi. She reassures him that Cypher's bitterness is just his own anger for not saving her. Senshi urges Kitai to wake up, and when he refuses, her form suddenly shifts to an Ursa-mutilated version of herself, finally awaking him the moment another thermal shift is beginning. Slowly freezing to death from the change of temperature, Kitai collapses, seemingly succumbing to the cold. Just before he passes out, he is dragged to safety by an unknown individual. Kitai awakes hours later, and notices that the condor that captured him before had kept him warm. He gratefully thanks the large bird for the help, quickly but realizes that it isn't responding, having died and sacrificing itself for his safety. He considers the protective instincts of the seemingly threatening condor. Running on his very last breathing capsule, which is beginning to wear off, Kitai finally reaches the tail section and retrieves the emergency beacon along with another communicator, another Cutlass, and more capsules. Because of a dead zone, the communicator allows Cypher to see and hear Kitai, but not for Kitai to hear him. Kitai learns that an Ursa that the ship carried for training purposes, escaped and killed the remnants of the crew. The dead zone also blocks the emergency beacon and Kitai realizes this just as the Ursa begins to track him. Kitai heads to a nearby volcano to fire the beacon, and is injured when the monster attacks. However, remembering Cypher's words, to focus on the moment rather than the outcome, and Senshi's words of encouragement from his dream, Kitai is able to control his fear and "ghost" himself from the Ursa long enough to fight back. Kitai uses the Cutlass to repeatedly impale the creature to death before it could throw them both from the mountaintop. He then fires the beacon as Cypher loses consciousness and appears to succumb to his injuries. A rescue team arrives and recovers them both. Kitai enters the medical chamber to see his father still alive and the two reconcile with a salute and an emotional embrace. Kitai decides not to become a ranger and work with his mother instead. Cypher himself agrees to join them and allows himself to laugh, considering the moment (in retrospect) as the ship leaves Earth and heads off to Nova Prime to bring them home. Cast *Jaden Smith as Kitai Raige *Will Smith as Cypher Raige *Sophie Okonedo as Faia Raige *Zoë Kravitz as Senshi Raige *Isabelle Fuhrman as Rayna *David Denman as McQuarrie *Kristofer Hivju as Security chief *Lincoln Lewis as Bo *Sacha Dhawan as Hesper Pilot *Chris Geere as Hesper Navigator External links * Category:Films Category:2013 release Category:Will Smith films